


The Ghost of Winterfell

by yggrites



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-02-12 18:45:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2120703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yggrites/pseuds/yggrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>10 years after Sansa's passing, the Starks return to their seat in the North, only to encounter the ghost that's been roaming the empty halls of Winterfell for the past 10 years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bran

Mid afternoon, Bran has asked Robb to take him to the outskirts of the woods. He had fallen so long ago but he still enjoyed looking at the trees and remembering what it was like to climb them when he was young.

Bran hadn't been in Winterfell in 16 years. He still remember that day 10 years ago when he had been told Sansa had passed away in King's Landing. Robb had been the one to bring their sister's bones back home, to the crypts beneath the castle, and he was the one who decided the Starks should return to Winterfell as well.

He must have fallen asleep, and when he woke up the sun was already setting. When Bran looked up at the trees, there was a girl sitting on a branch of one of the trees closest to him. She was dressed in a light blue dress, her bare feet dangling from the branch she was sitting on and her auburn hair blown back from her face by the wind. Bran couldn't doubt that this was Sansa, he had seen ghosts in Winterfell, only through different, older eyes.

He smiled, thinking of all the times Sansa had been the one in his place, looking up at Bran, warning him of how he could get hurt as he flung himself from one branch to the next.

Sansa smiled back at him and she looked every bit as beautiful as he remembered. Her kind Tully eyes were still the same, if not a bit older, and Bran realised this was not the sister he had seen leaving Winterfell all those years ago. This Sansa was older, wiser and, perhaps, sadder.

He remembered thinking about how beautiful his sister was, how he used to dream about crowning a lady as beautiful as Sansa as his queen of love and beauty when he became a knight and won tournaments.

Bran closed his eyes, as if just remembering hurt too much, and when he opened them again, Sansa was gone.

 


	2. Robb

Ever since he had returned all the Starks to Winterfell, Robb had taken it upon himself to train Rickon. All those years spent in the woods had left him with a poor posture when holding a sword and little technique. Every morning was spent in the training yard. Before lunch, Rickon would go off to the weirwood and Robb would return to his chambers, however today he had decided to stay a while longer.

He stood in front of one of the straw training dummies he had made for Rickon and whacked at it until his arm was numb. Standing aside, Robb pushed back the auburn curls, now streaked with grey, that clung to his forehead with sweat. Leaning against the wooden fence that limited the yard, her chin resting on her hands, her arms sprawled over the top of the fence, was a tall woman wearing a blue dress, her hair only differing from his in length.

Robb let the tip of his sword rest on the ground, as if he did not have the strength to hold it up any longer.

All those times Sansa had stood in that same place with Jeyne Pole by her side, cheering him on as he sparred with Jon came back to him in a flash. And even before he was old enough to hold a real sword, the three of them would come to the yard and Sansa would play the damsel while he and Jon fought to be the one to save her. 

The last time they had been there in the yard, she had been cheering for Joffrey, and still Robb would have given all he had to hear her clapping and laughing again.

He knew all the stories of Winterfell, why all the kings of Winter had a sword lying at the feet of their statues in the crypts. Robb thought of having a sword forged for Sansa, but as he looked at her, he could not bear to be the one who took away her freedoom of walking through Winterfell as she pleased.

When Robb came back outside after putting away the dummy and his sword, Sansa was nowhere to be seen.


	3. Jon

When Jon had gotten a letter from Robb letting him know of Sansa's passing and that he would be staying in Winterfell for some time, Jon had not gone south to meet him. But when 10 years later he received word that all the Starks were returning to the North, he gave himself leave from the Night's Watch to stay in Winterfell for a fortnight.

After almost a week has passed, he had finally gathered the courage to visit the crypts. He stopped in front of Eddard's first, Jon had never seen his father's crypt. When he finally managed to look away from his father's now stone-grey eyes, he moved down to Sansa's and kneeled, not sure what for.

He stood there, looking up at her statue for longer than he had planned and thinking it did not do her justice.

Sansa had always made sure he knew his place in the Stark family, that he wasn't her brother, that he was a bastard. But Jon no longer resented her for that. Jon had tried to love Catelyn and he had given up, but he wouldn't let it happen again with Sansa.

As he kneeled, he felt a somewhat reasuring hand rest on his shoulder. Not understanding how he hadn't heard someone come down, he looked behind his back and saw only the tail of a blue dress at the edge of the circle made by the torchlight. It couldn't possibly be Arya and very few people had already returned to Winterfell.

Jon got up but the rustling of the dress was getting further and further away. He rushed to meet her, climbing the stairs two at a time. He could still see the end of the dress trailing behind her, but everytime Jon thought he had caught up, she was already three, four steps ahead of him.

He finally reached the top of the stairs but, once outside, there was no one in sight in the yard.

 


	4. Rickon

After spending the best part of his day in the trainyard, Rickon had retired to the weirwood. Of all the Starks, he was the one who belonged to the North the most, as wild as the northern winds. Like his father, he had always seeked the quiet of the weirdwood and the company of the old Gods.

Rickon had already cleaned and polished his sword and was now sitting against a rock, resting his sore muscles. He was close to sleeping when he thought he heard someone whispering his name.

Getting up, Rickon saw a flash of blue and red. He might have been just a child, but he would have recognized that mop of fiery hair anywhere.

He remembered it hanging over his crib, followed by laughter and the whispered words of a song he could no longer call to mind. He remembered the effect the light that shone through the tree branches had on her hair, as it cascaded around him as she held him and he tried to pull at it.

Rickon couldn't stop himself when her name slipped past his lips and he ran after her. 

'Sansa!'

He ran for what felt like hours, calling out for his sister until his throat was raw. Rickon finally collapsed against the weirwood tree, exhausted, sad and cold, as the first drops of snow clung to his still unrully hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait, since it's such a small chapter but i guess life got in the way. i hope you enjoyed, this is actually my favourite chapter to write.


	5. Arya

Arya had been in Winterfell for over three months now. She had been on her way to Braavos at the time of Sansa's death. But she couldn't have avoided the news of Robb's, and consequently, her brothers' return to Winterfell. Not even all the way away in Braavos.

So she had finally gotten on a ship and returned to Westeros. She couldn't even tell how many years she had been away.

Arya's return had brought a swirl of hugs, tears and refief. Afterwords, they all had had enough work with rebuilding Winterfell and by the time the common people had returned as well, everything had quieted down, and the North seemed as alive and content as ever.

But not Arya. She was still haunted by her stay in Braavos, still drawn to it. Many times she had thought about running away and going back to the Free Cities. Not even Jon's arrival had changed her mind.

Until one night when Arya was looking out of her bedroom's window into her old room. That part of the castle was much too ruined and dangerous to be lived in. She was mapping out her 100th escape route when she saw someone by the window of her old chambers. She leaned out the window, welcoming the cold wind, only to see a red-headed figure in a blue dress do the same.

And suddenly all Arya could feel was the cold stone floor under her bare feet and her heart hammering inside her chest as she ran down the stairs and into the cold snow. She couldn't hear anyone crying out for her or her brothers and no one would dare stop the Lady Stark. All she could think about was getting to her sister.

She ran up the stairs and down corridors she still knew like the back of her hand and leaned into the door of her old room to open it.

It was like taking a blow to the stomach as all the air was stolen from her. Suddenly Arya wasn't five and twenty anymore. She couldn't be more than ten, fighting with Sansa over some dress she had ruined or her crooked stitches or her shameful actions. She would do anything to be able to be with her sister again, even if that meant fighting.

But Sansa was nowhere to be seen. Arya ran back out the door but there was no sign of her. She went back inside and ran to the window in time to see Sansa's auburn curls disappearing from her chambers' window.

The next thing she remembered, Arya was waking up on the cold stone floor. And for the first time since she left for King's Landing, Arya felt at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading through all of that. i hope you enjoyed and i strongly advise you to go check out this playlist (https://8tracks.com/edgarallanpoehler/winter-will-rise-again) where i got a lot of inspiration from.

**Author's Note:**

> If you were wondering, this is the dress i pictured sansa in: http://clothesonfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Game-of-Thrones_Sophie-Turner-blue-dress-full_Image-credit-HBO.jpg


End file.
